Discovering Faster Routes in Super Mario Wonder
Super Mario Bros. Wonder has caught the attention of speedrunners with its exciting movement mechanics and speed-enhancing badges. But now, a series of world skips have been uncovered, offering an incredibly fast route for those looking to tackle Mario Wonder as their next speedrun challenge.
Auto-Scrollers and Wonder Seeds
In Mario Wonder, players encounter numerous checkpoints on the world map that require a specific number of Wonder Seeds to enter, similar to Power Stars in Super Mario 64. Unfortunately, many of these Wonder Seeds trigger auto-scrolling levels, significantly slowing down the game and making it less enjoyable for speedrunners. Renowned Mario speedrunner Grand POOBear even expressed his preference for Wonder Seeds not being a requirement in the game.
Three Exciting World Skips
While completely bypassing the need for Wonder Seeds has not yet been discovered, speedrunners have managed to find three different world skips that offer a significant advantage. On October 29, Super Mario Galaxy speedrunner Jhay achieved a world record speedrun time of 1:41:13 using these world skips in Mario Wonder.
The Castle Skip
The first skip occurs at the castle located at the end of the first world. By utilizing two controllers on the world map, one character remains at the castle while the other ventures to the far left, going out of bounds. The player then pauses the game to access the character select menu, where they switch the characters on each controller. This causes the character who was previously out of bounds to now be at the castle, while the other character is off the regular track that players are typically forced to follow. This allows them to head straight towards the Petal Isles, bypassing unnecessary sections.
Petal Isles Skips
The other two world skips are both found within the Petal Isles, enabling players to completely skip the second and third worlds. These skips involve similar movement tricks. Again, two controllers are used, with one character standing on the tracks while the other is in the free-roam area of the world map. The second character needs to jump, and the player must pause the game mid-jump. From there, they access the character select menu, but this time, there is no need to reverse the characters. The jumping character will slightly clip out of bounds, allowing them to walk off-course and onto the sandy path that is usually submerged beneath the water. This eliminates the need to play through the second and third worlds to progress.
Game-Breaking Discoveries
Jhay credits the development of these world skips to a Twitch chatter named “burgerandfreys.” Their discovery of the glitch that broke Wonder sparked the creation of these skips. In less than two weeks since its release, Mario Wonder has already been cracked wide open, showcasing the immense potential for speedrunning in this game. It is highly likely that there are still many more game-breaking skips waiting to be uncovered.
About the author
Source: DOTESPORTS
